UNDERSTANDING THE NATURE OF A TRANSPLANT (PART 2)
September 10, 2008 by dr. lam · Leave a Comment
As some of you know, I wrote a blog last week or so on the nature of a transplant comparing fat grafting with hair transplant in terms of understanding the dip and the growth of a result. Here is the link to that blog if you would like.
Getting back from the ISHRS (International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery) meeting last week in Montreal, I was fascinated to learn about how transplanted hair grafts placed into a scarred region can actually over time repair the scalp skin and make it look normal again. That was really exciting news. Along thoe lines, I have seen consistently nice skin changes in my fat grafting patients a year out but couldn’t document the changes with absolute certainty…until now.
I did a charity case exactly a year ago in a nice young lady who had a car accident and was left with scarring despite operations to fix it. I did a single session of fat grafting for her and besides making her face more balanced, I put the fat under her scars, most notably, her right nasolabial groove (smile line), and as you can see a year after, the scar is significantly improved using standardized photography (Please click on the image to blow it up further. It is important you see the image in full resolution and fuller size to appreciate the change). My patient noticed that too and said, “Yeah, I was wondering about that. My scar was starting to look good but I couldn’t understand why.” I think it will continue to improve for another year so I am excited to post another blog in a year to see how her scar looks 2 years out.
The reason for this change is not entirely clear. However, the purported thinking is that the transplanted tissues have a “stem cell” change to the overlying and underlying structures that not only heal tissues but provide ongoing rejuvenation on a cellular level. That is really, extremely and profoundly cool to me.